Renamo rejects Mozambique vote results but leader vows "no more war"

MAPUTO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Mozambique's main opposition
group, the former rebel movement Renamo, said on Friday it would
challenge as fraudulent results showing the ruling Frelimo party
had won national elections, but Renamo's leader promised there
would be no return to war.

Afonso Dhlakama, whose guerrillas fought a civil war against
Frelimo from 1975 to 1992 in the former Portuguese colony, said
Wednesday's presidential and legislative elections had been
marred by widespread irregularities, including ballot stuffing.

The elections have been billed as crucial for Mozambique's
stability as it prepares to reap revenues from large offshore
gas deposits in the north being developed by U.S. oil major
Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Italy's Eni.

The impoverished Indian Ocean nation, which became
independent in 1975, is prominent on investors' radar screens,
with brisk annual economic growth rates of 8 percent fueled by
discoveries of coal and natural gas.

But with provisional results released by polling authorities
showing Frelimo and its candidate Filipe Nyusi, 55, headed for
victory over Dhlakama and third-placed Daviz Simango, Renamo has
called for the elections to be annulled and for a fresh vote.

Simango, 50, whose Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) is
an emerging third political force, also denounced what he said
were numerous reports of irregularities and fraud.

However, observers from the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) endorsed the
elections as acceptable. SADC viewed them as "generally
peaceful, transparent, free, fair and credible", South African
Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said in Maputo.

The white-haired Dhlakama, 61, who has lost four previous
elections to Frelimo, contested this.

"People need to understand the elections were not free, fair
or transparent," he told Reuters after meeting with ambassadors
from the European Union.

With a third of the votes counted, Nyusi leads with nearly
62 percent, while Dhlakama has 31 percent and Simango has around
7 percent, according to provisional results.

The dispute over the expected Frelimo victory has raised
fears of a return to conflict in the southern African nation
following two years of sporadic attacks and ambushes by
Dhlakama's armed partisans in the run-up to the elections.

But while confirming he would challenge the results,
including through legal channels, Dhlakama appeared to rule out
armed insurgency.

"I can guarantee to you that there will be no more war in
Mozambique," he told Reuters.

Following generally peaceful voting on Wednesday, Renamo
supporters later clashed with police in the second city of Beira
and in Nampula in the north. At least one person suffered
gunshot wounds and more than 30 arrests were made.

Renamo has accused police of intimidating voters to
influence the vote outcome in favour of Frelimo and has also
denounced cases of ballot stuffing. "There were people carrying
around urns full of votes for Nyusi," Dhlakama said.

Frelimo has denied the accusations.

The spokesman for Mozambique's National Electoral Commission
(CNE), Paulo Cuinica, said Renamo should direct its complaints
through legal channels established for the election process.
"There is no fact to suggest the process is at risk," he said.

EU CITES POLICE, MEDIA BIAS

The European Union observer mission was more cautious than
its African counterparts in its preliminary assessment of the
Mozambican elections. It described Wednesday's voting as
generally quiet and orderly but said election campaigning had
been "unbalanced" with Frelimo enjoying "a serious advantage".

This included the ruling party benefitting from the use of
state assets and civil servants taking part in its campaign,
Judith Sargentini, head of the EU observer mission and a Dutch
member of the European Parliament, told a news conference.

She said Frelimo also benefitted from a bias in the police
force against the opposition and from one-sided state media.

In his interview with Reuters, Dhlakama complained that the
EU and other members of the international community were not
tough enough in demanding democratic standards in Africa.

"What is SADC? South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola, a club of
leaders who don't want to criticise Frelimo," he said, a
reference to the ruling former liberation movements and their
leaders who dominate the politics of southern Africa.

In their campaigns, Renamo's Dhlakama and MDM's Simango
attacked what they say is the stranglehold Frelimo has long
maintained over political and economic power in Mozambique.

In the two years before the vote, Dhlakama's armed Renamo
partisans clashed sporadically with government troops and police
and ambushed traffic on a north-south highway.

The former guerrilla leader emerged from a bush hideout only
last month to ratify a deal with outgoing Frelimo President
Armando Guebuza reaffirming a 1992 peace pact that ended
Mozambique's civil war. Guebuza was barred by the constitution
from standing for a third term.
(Editing by Ed Stoddard and Gareth Jones)